Nielsen: Integrated Campaigns a Waste of Money

After studying 45 cross-platform campaigns, Nielsen found their duplicated reach was actually on par with campaigns in which TV and online were run independently.

With proper measurement and management, research shows that a campaign can get, on average, 8-percent greater reach or reinforce key messaging across screens with significantly higher frequency, without any additional expenditure. Without accurate measurement, the study has proven that results may not be any better than if separate campaigns were run on TV and online.

“For now, the relative amount of money poorly invested is small – but it’s only a matter of time before the stakes are higher yet,” the report says.

When managed together, TV and digital hold the potential to drive real impact for advertisers.

Nielsen says a campaign can achieve 70-percent TV reach and 30-percent online reach. The random overlap of online with TV audience will be 21 percent. That means for every 30 members of the desired audience reached online, just nine will see it only online – which Nielsen calls “pretty poor.”

Today, traditional TV still accounts for the lion’s share of video viewing, and will likely continue to do so for a good while, but online and mobile are where the growth is, with 30 percent growth in hours watched per month from fourth-quarter 2012 to fourth-quarter 2013, according to the report.

Nielsen/ANA cross-platform research shows that in two years, 85 percent of those surveyed believe multiscreen campaigns will be “very important” – up from 38 percent in 2013.